Benjamin Collier is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Risk, Insurance, and Healthcare Management in the Fox School of Business at Temple University and a Research Fellow in the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in its Risk Management and Decision Processes Center. His research examines how households and firms manage severe climate risks. His recent projects analyze households’ insurance contract decisions in the U.S. National Flood Insurance Program, the effects of Hurricane Sandy on the finances of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the New York area, and the consequences of natural disasters for SME credit markets in developing and emerging economies.

Among other outlets, Collier has published in the Journal of Risk and Insurance and Harvard Business Review. He has been quoted and his research cited in the Wall Street Journal, Business Insurance, and the Actuarial Review. He received the Outstanding Dissertation Award for his work on credit access in communities vulnerable to El Niño related flooding in Peru from the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, which selects annually from all dissertations in agricultural and applied economics in the U.S. He is a member of the Risk Theory Society.

Please also visit his website: blcollier.com

Dr. J. David Cummins is the Joseph E. Boettner Professor of Risk Management, Insurance and Financial Institutions. He also serves as the Director of the Advanta Center for Financial Institutions, and as a member of the Research Roundtable.

Dr. Cummins is a prolific author. In a recent academic research article in the Journal of Risk and Insurance that analyzed the relative contributions to the field of risk, insurance and financial institutions of all scholars, Dr. Cummins was recognized as the Premier (#1) researcher in this discipline in the world.

Dr. Cummins’ research focuses on insurance economics; financial risk management; productivity and efficiency; and securitization. During his career, Dr. Cummins has written 85 articles in academic journals. He has published numerous articles in the premier Risk and Insurance journals, including: the Journal of Risk and Insurance, Geneva Papers, North American Actuarial Review, and Insurance, Mathematics and Economics. Apart from Insurance journals, he has also published in many premier journals in Finance and Economics, such as: The Journal of Banking and Finance, The Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, The Journal of Monetary Economics, The Journal of Financial Economics, The Journal of Law and Economics, Management Science, The Journal of Business, The Journal of Economic Perspectives, Econometrica, Economic Letters, The Bell Journal, Federal Reserve Bank Reviews and the Brookings Papers.

Furthermore, he has authored, coauthored, edited and co-edited a total of sixteen books. He has authored and coauthored a total of thirty-four chapters in books and monographs.

In terms of teaching, Dr. Cummins’ greatest contributions have been in the doctoral area. He has chaired 41 doctoral dissertations and is currently chairing 11 students.

Dr. Cummins is also extremely active in his profession. He has organized many conferences, and has been a panelist, discussant, moderator, and chair of many sessions in Risk and Insurance conferences. He is currently the co-editor of the Journal of Banking and Finance, which is a premier journal in the field. Also, he is the Associate Editor of eight journals in Risk & Insurance and Finance.

Additionally, Dr. Cummins has held the highest office in the profession as the President of the American Risk and Insurance Association.

As Director of Industry Relations, John serves as the liaison between the RIHM Department and the risk and insurance industry and other stakeholders to Temple. He leads key external initiatives established by the RIHM Department for the betterment of our students, the University and the industry. In addition, John is an Assistant Professor of Practice and teaches the RMI 2101 Introduction to Risk Management undergraduate course each semester.

Prior to joining the RIHM Department at Temple in 2018 John spent 25 years in the Property & Casualty Insurance Industry fulfilling roles related to client service, sales, marketing and company operations. His work has been conducted within global, national and regional corporations. During this time, he has established himself within in the greater risk and insurance industry as a dependable solutions practitioner and relationship partner.

John is a graduate of Temple University and obtained a Bachelor of Business Administration Degree with a dual major in Accounting and Risk Management. He also earned a Master of Science Degree in
Insurance Management from Boston University. He is a recipient of the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) and Associate in Risk Management (ARM) designations. He maintains a producer’s
license in both Property & Casualty and Health, Life and Annuities in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Randy E. Dumm joins the Fox School from Florida State University, where he served as the Hold Professor of Risk and Insurance.

He has published in a number of risk management, insurance, and real estate journals, including the Journal of Risk and Insurance, Risk Management and Insurance Review, Geneva Risk and Insurance Review, the Journal of Real Estate Research and the Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics.

In 2014, he received the Shin Research Excellence Award during the International Insurance Society Seminar in London. Dr. Dumm completed the Fulbright Scholars program at Vienna University of Business and Economics in 2004.

He is a past-president of both the Southern and Western Risk and Insurance Associations, and he was recently elected to the board of directors of the American Risk and Insurance Association.

He earned his PhD in Risk Management and Insurance, with a minor in Finance, from the University of Georgia. He received his MBA in Finance and Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration, with a major in Finance, from Shippensburg University.

Dr. Cameron Ellis joins the Fox School on a tenure-track appointment as an Assistant Professor within the Department of Risk, Insurance, & Healthcare Management. He has been on a non-tenure track appointment in the same department for the past two years.

His research interests include insurance economics, industrial organization, machine learning, econometrics, and health economics. His current research projects examine the welfare effect of expanding access to secondary markets for life insurance, the role of two-part tariffs as a signaling device in life insurance pricing, and the effect of Medicaid expansion on the individual market for health insurance.

He is a member of the American Risk and Insurance Association, the Southern Risk and Insurance Association, the American Economic Association and the Southern Economics Association and the Risk Theory Society.

He earned his PhD in Economics from the University of Georgia. He also studied at Georgia College & State University, where he received his MBA and Bachelor of Science degree —both in Economics and Mathematics.

Dr. Martin F. Grace joins the Fox School as the Harry A. Cochran Professor of Risk, Insurance, & Healthcare Management.

Most recently, Grace was a Georgia Regents’ Professor and held the James S. Kemper Jr. Professorship in Risk Management. He served as the chair of Georgia State University’s risk management and insurance department. He is the former president of the Risk Theory Society, and serves as an associate editor of the Journal of Risk and Insurance. His research interests include tort reform, catastrophe financing, and industrial organization, regulation, and taxation of the insurance industry.

Over his career, he has published more than 70 professional and scholarly research papers and book chapters, and has consulted with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, various state regulators, and industry associations. He also has testified before the U.S. Congress on the future of insurance regulation as part of the Dodd-Frank Act.

Grace earned his PhD in Economics from the University of Florida, where he also attained his JD and his Master of Arts degree in Economics. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of New Hampshire.

James D. Harrington, CFA, is an Assistant Professor of Practice in the Department of Risk, Insurance, and Healthcare Management. Harrington joined the Fox School in 2016 as an adjunct professor of insurance and financial planning.

He has more than three decades of experience in risk management, insurance, and investments. His experience encompasses several Fortune 500 Companies, wherein he was responsible for both risk management and insurance and investments. Most recently, Harrington served as an independent investment advisor and consultant with Stone Toro, an RIA firm based in Princeton, N.J.

He attained his Master of Business Administration in Risk Management & Insurance from the University of Georgia, and his Bachelor of Business Administration from The Pennsylvania State University.

Jim Hilliard is Associate Professor of Instruction in the Department of Risk, Insurance, and Healthcare Management in the Fox School of Business at Temple University. His research is focused on capital structure, capital markets, and regulation in the insurance industry. He also publishes case studies and pedagogical notes for both the insurance and finance classroom.

Among other outlets, Hilliard has published in the Journal of Risk and Insurance, Geneva Risk and Insurance Review, Southern Economic Journal, and European Financial Management. He is a frequent lecturer for events sponsored by the Griffith Educational Foundation, including invited lectures for legislators with responsibility for overseeing insurance operations in their states.

Michael R. Hubbel is Associate Professor of Practice in the Department of Risk, Insurance and Healthcare Management in the Fox School of Business at Temple University. He is also Professor Emeritus at Olivet College, and conducts seminars for professional clients of The Center for Executive Development of the School of Risk Management, Insurance and Actuarial Science at St. John’s University.

Hubbel earned the BA in Risk and Insurance at Michigan State University, and the MBA in Risk Management at The College of Insurance, now the School of Risk Management, Insurance and Actuarial Science at St. John’s University in New York. He has earned the CPCU, ARM, AU, AIM, ARP, ASLI, and ARe designations from the Institutes.

Hubbel has worked with several insurance companies in the areas of research and product development, education, planning, and government relations, his last appointment as the vice president of an insurance company. Hubbel has taught insurance and risk management at Michigan State University, The College of Insurance, Olivet College, as well as Temple University. He has served as the Associate Director of the Center for Professional Education at The College of Insurance, designing programs for a wide variety of firms and professionals around the world. Hubbel has served on committees for the Michigan Insurance Department, the Michigan Supreme Court, and the insurance community. He has testified for House Insurance Committee of the Michigan Legislature, and lectured on the subject of the U.S. insurance industry for groups of insurance executives and regulators from all over the world. He has published articles in Best’s Review, On the Risk, The Sextant, Journal of International Insurance, and the CPCU Insights Journal, and designed online insurance courses for IBM, Olivet College, Rhodes Online Institute, RMS, Seton Hall University, and a major consulting firm.

Hubbel is a member of the Risk and Insurance Management Society and International Insurance Society, and was inducted into the Michigan Insurance Hall of Fame in 2016.

Tim Luedtke is an assistant professor of practice in the Department of Risk, Insurance and Healthcare Management at the Fox School of Business. He is also the founder and CEO of Navigator Benefit Solutions, a consulting firm which helps insurers, employers, healthcare providers, and brokers navigate the complex world of healthcare reform, employee benefits, insurance design with consulting, technical, management and expert witness services.

With over 25 years of experience with leading Fortune 100 insurance and banking organizations, as well as the Big Four auditors, Luedtke has worked in the areas of new business development, investment management, product development, strategic growth, insurance securitizations, life settlements, international, long-term care, and corporate development. He has written and presented on numerous health and employee benefit topics, including captive insurance, comparative effectiveness, consumer-driven healthcare, and pay for performance. Current research and development focuses on helping regulators and carriers address the growing financial threat to today’s long-term care market.

Mr. Luedtke holds a BS in Actuarial Science from the University of Nebraska; is both Fellow of the Society of Actuaries and Chartered Financial Analyst; and has held a Pennsylvania Life and Health Producer License.

Thorsten Moenig is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Risk, Insurance, and Healthcare Management in the Fox School of Business at Temple University, and a co-director of the Actuarial Science Masters’ program. His main research concerns the impact of market frictions on variable annuities, a modern equity-linked personal investment and retirement savings vehicle. In particular, he examines optimal policyholder behavior and its implications for an efficient design of these product. His research has been published in the Journal of Risk and Insurance, the North American Actuarial Journal, and the Review of Finance, and was awarded the 2017 Redington Prize from the Society of Actuaries.

Moenig holds a Master’s degree in Actuarial Science from the University of Connecticut and a PhD in Risk Management and Insurance from Georgia State University. He is an Associate of the Society of Actuaries (ASA). He enjoys teaching and is the proud recipient of the 2017/18 Outstanding Teacher Award by the Sigma chapter of Gamma Iota Sigma. 

Dr. M. Moshe Porat is the former Chairman of the Risk, Insurance and Healthcare Management department.

Prior to his academic work, Dr. Porat served as deputy general manager of Ihud Insurance Group, a large international risk management and insurance firm, and as an economic and financial consultant. Dr. Porat authored several monographs and numerous articles on captives and their use in risk management, self-insurance and other financial topics. He has served as an expert witness and as a consultant to governments and many public and private organizations.

Dr. Porat is a Board Member of the America-Israel Chamber of Commerce, the Pennsylvania Economy League, Mastery Charter Schools, and Committee Chair for the Philadelphia Education Advisory Taskforce Committee of Finance, Resources, and Fiscal Impact. He also served on the Board of Advisers of Samsung Fire and Marine Insurance Company of Korea. He also served on the Board of Directors of United America Indemnity, Ltd. and Penn America Group. Dr. Porat was Chairperson for the Mayor of Philadelphia Transition Committee on the new economy and economic growth for the city and the region.

Dr. Porat holds the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) professional designation and is a member of American Risk and Insurance Association (ARIA), International Insurance Society (IIS), Risk and Insurance Management Society (RIMS) and the CPCU Society.

Dr. Porat has won several awards for excellence in research and the 1998 Philadelphia Mayor’s Citation for his activities in connection with international programs. The Academy of International Business selected him as the 2001 International Dean of the Year for his leadership and contributions to international business programs and research. He also received the 2002 Adam Smith Leadership Award for Academic Excellence and Educational Leadership by Economics Pennsylvania.

He received his undergraduate degree in economics and statistics (with distinction) from Tel Aviv University. His MBA (magna cum laude) is from the Recanati Graduate School of Management at Tel Aviv University. He completed his doctoral work at Temple University.

Carla Jackie Sampson is an Assistant Professor and Director of Healthcare Management Programs in the Department of Risk, Insurance, and Healthcare Management Programs in the Fox School of Business. Her research interests include healthcare workforce policy, social determinants of health, and anchor mission strategy development. Dr. Sampson served as the research assistant for the Florida Center for Nursing and was lead author for the report Emerging & Evolving Roles and Occupations within the Healthcare Industry: Florida’s Perspective. Previously, Dr. Sampson served as the Vice President of the Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Management Education (CAHME). Her role at the Commission was to assure the excellent preparation of future leaders in the healthcare industry through the management of the accreditation activities. Under her direction, CAHME launched several initiatives designed to implement competency-based education, streamline the accreditation process, improve the consistency of site visits, and develop workshops on CAHME’s accreditation criteria for program directors and site visitors. Dr. Sampson also served as a consultant to all programs seeking initial CAHME accreditation and oversaw the design and implementation of an electronic accreditation system.

She earned her doctorate in Public Affairs – Health Services Management and Research from the College of Health and Public Affairs at the University of Central Florida. She earned an MBA in Healthcare Management and a Master of Science degree in Healthcare Financial Management from the Fox School of Business, Temple University in 2006. She is board certified in healthcare management since 2011.

Dr. Tianxiang Shi is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Risk, Insurance and Healthcare Management. He is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries (FSA) and currently serves as a Co-Director for the M.S. Actuarial Science program.

Dr Shi’ research interests include risk and insolvency analysis, pension risk management, and stochastic modeling in insurance and finance. His papers have been published in leading actuarial and insurance journals, such as the Journal of Risk and Insurance, Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, North American Actuarial Journal and ASTIN Bulletin.

Dr. Shi earned his Ph.D. degree in Actuarial Science from the University of Waterloo in 2013. He also holds a M.S. degree in Applied Mathematics (with concentration in Actuarial Science) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a B.S. degree in Mathematics from Zhejiang University.

Sample Publications:

• • Cox, Samuel H., Yijia Lin, and Tianxiang Shi (2018). Pension risk management with funding and buyout options, Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, 78: 183-200.
  • Cai, Jun, David Landriault, Tianxiang Shi and Wei Wei (2017). Joint insolvency analysis of a shared MAP risk process: a capital allocation application, North American Actuarial Journal, 21(2): 178-192.
  • Lin, Yijia, Tianxiang Shi and Ayse Arik (2017). Pricing buy-ins and buy-outs. Journal of Risk and Insurance, 84: 367-392.
  • Huynh, Mirabelle, David Landriault, Tianxiang Shi and Gordon E. Willmot (2015). On a risk model with claim investigation. Insurance: Mathematics and Economics 65: 37-45.
  • Landriault, David and Tianxiang Shi (2015). Occupation times in the MAP risk model. Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, 60: 75-82.
  • Landriault, David and Tianxiang Shi (2014). First passage time for compound Poisson processes with diffusion: ruin theoretical and financial applications. Scandinavian Actuarial Journal, 2014(4): 368-382.
  • Shi, Tianxiang and David Landriault (2013). Distribution of the time to ruin in some Sparre Andersen risk models. ASTIN Bulletin, 43(1): 39-59.
  • Landriault, David, Tianxiang Shi and Gordon E. Willmot (2011). Joint densities involving the time to ruin in the Sparre Andersen risk model with exponential claim sizes. Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, 49: 371-379.

Awards:

• • Faculty of the Year – MS in Actuarial Science, 2019
  • James C. Hickman Scholarship Recipient of 2011-2013, The Society of Actuaries.

Krupa S. Viswanathan is an Associate Professor in the Risk, Insurance, and Healthcare Management department. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in Actuarial Science and Risk Management & Insurance. She is also the Director of the Actuarial Science program and is an Associate of the Society of Actuaries.

Dr. Viswanathan’s research interests include systemic risk analysis, the capital structure of insurers, and crisis management. She also investigates the impact of corporate governance decisions by insurers. Her research has been published in the Journal of Risk and Insurance, North American Actuarial Journal, and Journal of Risk Finance. She received her Ph.D. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Mary A. Weiss, Ph.D. is Deaver Professor of Risk, Insurance, and Healthcare Management at the Fox School of Business and Management of Temple University. She is a Past President of the premier insurance academic organization in the U.S., the American Risk and Insurance Association (ARIA) and the prestigious Risk Theory Society.

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Professor Wilkins joined the Fox faculty in the Fall of 2013. In 2010-2011, she was an Adjunct Professor at the Drexel University Law School in Philadelphia. Professor Wilkins’ more than two decades of insurance industry experience include various roles with property casualty carriers including ACE American Insurance Company and State Farm. As an Assistant General Counsel for the AAA Mid-Atlantic Insurance Group, she was responsible for providing legal advice to all of the carrier’s business units. She has considerable expertise in the areas of insurance contracts, litigation management, insurance regulations, complex claims handling and corporate training.

Her honors include the 2014 Gamma Iota Sigma Outstanding Teacher Award; the 2014 Crystal Apple Teaching Award from the Fox School of Business and the 2013 Outstanding Educator Award from the Insurance Society of Philadelphia.

Professor Wilkins earned her Juris Doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Prior to attending Penn Law, she received her undergraduate degree cum laude from the American University in Washington, D.C. She continued her professional education by obtaining her Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) designation. She is certified by the Society of Insurance Trainers and Educators as an Insurance Training Professional (ITP).

Jeffrey Zheng is an Assistant Professor of Practice in the Department of Risk, Insurance, and Healthcare Management. He also serves as Associate Director of the school’s Actuarial Science Program.

Zheng joins the Fox School from the University of Notre Dame, where he had taught courses on applied financial economics, loss models, and actuarial science since 2015. He is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries and a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society.

Zheng earned a Master’s in Education from Harvard University and a Master’s in Accounting from the University of Michigan. He also received a Bachelor of Science in Actuarial Math and Economics from the University of Michigan.

Jacqueline S. Zinn, Ph.D. has been co-editor in chief of the journal HSR: Health Services Research since 2010. She received her MBA from the Fox School of Business and Management in 1978 and her doctorate degree from the Wharton School in 1990. She is currently a professor in the Fox School’s Department of Risk, Insurance and Healthcare Management. Prior to obtaining her doctorate degree, Dr. Zinn was a planner and administrator at Temple University and the University of Pennsylvania Health Systems.

Dr. Zinn has over 80 articles published in peer-reviewed journals and over 100 research presentations at national conferences. She is a nationally recognize authority on quality and access in long term care services. She is a 1996 recipient of the Thompson Prize for Young Investigators from the Association of University Programs in Health Administration (AUPHA). Recently, Dr. Zinn was co-principal investigator on a five year NIH-funded study of nursing home response to public release of quality of care information.

Dr. Zinn is a past chair of the Healthcare Management Division of the Academy of Management. She is currently on the board of the Inglis Foundation and a former member of the accreditation council for the Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Management Education, and a current member of the AUPHA Finance Committee.

M. Michael Zuckerman, J.D., M.B.A., A.C.I. is an Associate Professor (Instruction) in Risk and Insurance Management at Temple University’s Fox School of Business in Philadelphia. He also serves as the Academic Director for the Fox School’s Risk, Insurance, and Healthcare Management Department (RIHM) Enterprise Risk Management initiative, which includes the development and ongoing management of its annual Enterprise Risk Management Conference at Fox, which began in 2018. His research and teaching focus include Enterprise Risk Management and the design, implementation, and operation of advanced alternative risk financing and transfer programs. Professor Zuckerman rejoined the Fox School full-time in 2012 from Aon, where he served as Managing Director and Alternative Risk Financing Practice Leader for the Health Care Industry Group. Professor Zuckerman’s three decades of industry experience include executive positions at Thomas Jefferson University, Willis, Marsh and Temple University Health System. He also consults on Risk Management and Insurance issues and is also a frequent speaker and writer on Alternative Risk Financing and general Risk Management subject matter.